JPH11305799A - Recording and reproducing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve the convenience and to reduce the power consumption of a recording and reproducing device equipped with an analog and a digital memory. SOLUTION: When a battery 4 is used as a power source instead of a power supply adapter 5 to reduce power consumption, an external analog signal is recorded in an analog memory 2. When reproduction is instructed from a key input device 7, reproduction from the analog memory 2 is performed on condition that an ID decision circuit 13 decides that the same music is recorded in the analog memory 2 and digital memory 3. When the power supply adapter 5 is used, it is possible to record the external signal in the analog memory 2 while information stored in the analog memory 2 is converted to digital information, compressed, and saved in the digital memory 3.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a recording and reproducing apparatus for recording and reproducing analog signals such as voice and music.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as recording media for recording and reproducing audio signals and video signals, magnetic tapes such as analog tapes, optical disks such as compact disks (CD) and digital video disks (DVD), and the like.
A magnetic disk such as a mini disk (MD) is practically used. Generally, an analog signal is recorded as it is as analog information on a magnetic tape and reproduced. There are also digital magnetic tapes. An analog signal such as audio, music, or video is converted into digital information and recorded on a CD. Digital information is further compressed and recorded on the MD. These tape-shaped or disk-shaped recording media need to perform a relative movement with respect to a head for writing and reading information, and have a mechanical driving portion.

[0003] On the other hand, a stationary individual recording device having no mechanical drive part has also been put to practical use as a low bit rate audio recording / reproducing device, for example, a so-called voice memo. In voice memos, voice information is compressed and recorded in a semiconductor memory or the like to save a necessary storage area. M
In the case of D, voice memo, and the like, since audio information is compressed and recorded, it is necessary to perform decompression processing to return the compressed information to the original information when reproducing the information.

[0004] As a prior art for realizing a recording / reproducing apparatus having no mechanical driving part, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. HEI 4-Heisei 4 has disclosed.
-001997 proposes an individual recording device using a CCD analog memory. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-196647
Has proposed an analog memory using a ferroelectric substance. In an individual recording device such as a voice memo, a semiconductor memory is used. Although the storage capacity of a semiconductor memory is increasing year by year, it is still insufficient for recording voice information. Among semiconductor memories, a dynamic RAM and a flash memory have an advantage of a particularly large capacity. However, the dynamic RAM is volatile, and furthermore, it is not possible to keep the stored contents unless the power is always supplied and the refresh operation is performed. Static RA
M needs to continue to supply power, but does not perform a refresh operation, so that power consumption can be reduced. The flash memory is an electrically rewritable non-volatile memory (EEPROM), and can hold recorded contents without supplying power.

[0005]

A recording / reproducing apparatus for mechanically driving a tape-shaped or disk-shaped recording medium consumes a large amount of current and is not preferable in terms of size and weight in a portable device, but has a large capacity and is expensive. It is necessary to use a simple rechargeable battery or to use a small and lightweight battery in order to reduce the battery life.

When recording and reproducing using a general semiconductor memory, it is necessary to use a compression circuit and an expansion circuit to save the storage capacity by compressing the information to be recorded and to restore the information by expanding the compressed information. Therefore, it is necessary to operate a compression circuit and a decompression circuit for that purpose, and power consumption increases.

As a solid-state memory that does not require a mechanical drive part and can record and reproduce analog information as it is,
The CD analog memory and the ferroelectric analog memory still have a smaller storage capacity than the semiconductor memory, and have a higher unit price compared to the ratio of the storage capacity. Therefore, it is not realistic to record and reproduce an acoustic signal currently being recorded and reproduced on a magnetic tape or the like only in those analog memories.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a recording / reproducing apparatus which can use a plurality of types of memories selectively according to a use situation and can improve convenience and reduce power consumption.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a recording / reproducing apparatus comprising an analog memory capable of recording and reproducing analog information and a digital memory capable of writing and reading digital information. Conversion means for converting between digital information and digital information; compression and decompression means for compressing and writing digital information to a digital memory; and reading and decompressing digital information written to the digital memory; Control means for controlling recording and reproduction of an analog signal as analog information using an analog memory and / or recording and reproduction as digital information using a conversion means, a compression / expansion means and a digital memory according to predetermined conditions. And a recording / reproducing apparatus.

According to the present invention, the control means controls the analog memory to record and reproduce the analog information, converts the analog information into the digital memory by the conversion means, converts the analog information into the digital information, and compresses the analog information by the expansion / compression means. It can be controlled so that it is processed and written, read from the digital memory, decompressed by the decompression and compression means, converted to analog information by the conversion means and reproduced. Recording and reproduction to and from analog memory as analog information and recording and reproduction to digital memory after conversion to digital information are performed according to predetermined conditions regarding convenience and power consumption. It is possible to switch between recording and reproduction, compression and recording as digital information, and expansion and reproduction. In particular, when it is necessary to reduce power consumption, recording and reproducing analog information in analog memory eliminates the need for compression / expansion processing that consumes a large amount of power, and the battery life when operating with the built-in battery Can be extended.

In the present invention, a multi-level flash memory is used in place of the analog memory.

According to the present invention, a multi-value flash memory is used in place of an analog memory. Therefore, even if the analog information is converted into digital information without having a mechanical driving portion, a large-capacity recording can be performed. It can be performed. If the compression / decompression processing is not performed, power consumption can be suppressed.

In the present invention, the digital memory is a semiconductor memory. According to the present invention, since the digital memory is constituted by a semiconductor memory, a widely used general semiconductor memory can be used to constitute an inexpensive and large-capacity digital memory.

[0014] Further, the present invention is characterized in that the control means includes a switch input means for switching between recording and reproducing the analog information as analog information and recording and reproducing as the digital information in accordance with an externally supplied input;
When the switching input means is not provided with the switching input,
It is characterized by comprising switching determination means for determining whether to use an internal battery or an external power supply supplied via a power adapter as a power supply, and performing the switching according to the determination result.

According to the present invention, when an externally applied input or no input is applied to the switching input means,
The switching determination means determines whether to use an internal battery or an external power supply supplied via a power adapter as a power supply. In accordance with the result of the determination, the control means can switch between recording and reproducing the analog information in the analog memory and recording and reproducing the digital information after converting the digital information into the digital memory.

In the present invention, the control means reads analog information recorded in the analog memory, converts the analog information into digital information by the conversion means, compresses the digital information by the compression / decompression means, and writes the digital information in the digital memory. It is characterized in that it is controlled so as to be stored.

According to the present invention, analog information recorded in an analog memory can be read, subjected to conversion and compression processing, and written and stored in a digital memory.

Further, in the present invention, the compression / decompression means includes a plurality of compression circuits for executing the compression processing of the digital information in parallel.

According to the present invention, when the analog information stored in the analog memory is read out, converted into digital data, and then compressed, the compression processing is performed in parallel by a plurality of compression circuits, so that the compression processing is performed in a short time. High-speed compression processing can be performed.

In the present invention, the control means includes an information dividing means for dividing the analog information read from the analog memory in accordance with a delimiting condition which satisfies a predetermined continuity. Digital information based on the information is controlled so as to be compressed in parallel by the plurality of compression circuits.

According to the present invention, the digital information to be compressed in parallel by the plurality of compression circuits is divided by the information dividing means according to the delimiting condition satisfying the predetermined continuity when the digital information is read out from the analog memory as analog information. Therefore, high-speed compression processing can be performed without losing continuity.

Further, in the present invention, the plurality of compression circuits write the digital information subjected to the compression processing in parallel to the digital memory at the end of the processing.

According to the present invention, the digital information subjected to the compression processing in parallel by the plurality of compression circuits is written into the digital memory at the end of the processing. A quick compression process can be performed without using a large-capacity buffer required when writing data to a file.

Further, in the present invention, the control means performs control so as to record new analog information in a recording area of the analog memory in which the analog information to be stored is recorded.

According to the present invention, new analog information can be recorded in the analog memory while the analog information recorded in the analog memory is compressed and stored in the digital memory.

In the present invention, the control means reads the digital information written in the digital memory by the compression / decompression means, performs decompression processing, converts the digital information into analog information by the conversion means, It is characterized in that it is controlled so as to be transferred to a memory and recorded.

According to the present invention, digital information recorded in a digital memory can be expanded and converted into analog information and transferred to the analog memory for recording. Therefore, the same analog signal is repeatedly reproduced. In such a case, the data is transferred to an analog memory and recorded as analog information, and is repeatedly reproduced, so that it is not necessary to operate the conversion means and compression / expansion means at each repetition, thereby reducing power consumption. .

In the present invention, the control means determines whether or not the analog information recorded in the analog memory and the digital information recorded in the digital memory are based on an analog signal representing the same source data. An analog source and a digital information determined to be the same source data by the same source determining means are provided by reproducing the analog information from the analog memory.

According to the present invention, the same source determining means includes:
It is determined whether the analog information recorded in the analog memory and the digital information written in the digital memory are based on an analog signal representing the same source data. When the same source data is recorded in both the analog memory and the digital memory according to the result of the determination, the control means including the same source determination means controls the analog information to be reproduced from the analog memory. By stopping the operation of the compression / expansion means, power consumption can be reduced.

Further, in the present invention, the source data is acoustic information, and the same source determining means determines in advance the analog information recorded in the analog memory and the silent portion at the head of the digital information written in the digital memory. A predetermined number of information units are used as identification information for the determination.

According to the present invention, the identification information for determining whether or not the source data is the same is provided in a predetermined number of information units including a silent part at the head of the digital information. There is no need to create and manage, and it is possible to easily determine whether or not the source data is the same.

[0032]

FIG. 1 shows a schematic electrical configuration of a recording / reproducing apparatus which is a recording / reproducing apparatus of an acoustic signal as a first embodiment of the present invention. The control circuit 1 performs a program operation including a microcomputer or the like, and controls the analog memory 2 and the digital memory 3 to record and reproduce audio information such as voice and music. A battery 4 is built in as a power supply for operation, and power can be supplied from outside via a power supply adapter 5. Whether or not the power adapter 5 is used is detected by a power detection circuit 6 which is a switching determination unit. In FIG. 1, as shown as a legend, two parallel solid lines indicate the flow of an analog signal, a thick solid line indicates a flow of a digital signal, a broken line indicates a flow of a digital compression signal, and a thin solid line indicates a control signal. The flow of is shown. As the analog memory 2, a CCD memory or a ferroelectric memory is used. As the digital memory 3, a RAM or a flash memory is used.

When the power supply detection circuit 6 determines that the power supply adapter 5 is not used, the battery 4 is operated as a power supply, and the control circuit 1 controls the analog memory 2 to record and reproduce acoustic information. Is the default state. The key input device 7 serving as a switching input unit is used to input an operation by a user of the recording / reproducing device. When the user inputs an instruction to start recording, recording is performed on the analog memory 2. The audio signal to be recorded is input to an input selection circuit 8 as analog information.
And recorded in the analog memory 2. The output selection circuit 9 is switched so as to read and output analog information from the analog memory 2 when the user instructs reproduction via the key input device 7. Display device 1
Numeral 0 is constituted by, for example, a liquid crystal display device (LCD), and displays related information on acoustic information to be recorded or reproduced. Through the key input device 7, the user can instruct recording or reproduction and specify a music piece as a unit of a target acoustic signal.

The control circuit 1 includes a switching control circuit 11, a data / address control circuit 12, and an ID determination circuit 13. The switching control circuit 11 sets the input selection circuit 8 and the output selection circuit 9 to a state for recording / reproducing analog information to / from the analog memory 2 and to the digital memory 3
Control for switching between recording and reproduction of digital information. The data / address control circuit 12 performs control for recording / reproducing with respect to the analog memory 2 and the digital memory 3. The ID determination circuit 13 manages ID which is identification information of analog information and digital information recorded in the analog memory 2 and the digital memory 3, respectively, and there is analog information and digital information having the same acoustic signal as source data. It is determined whether or not to perform.

In the recording / reproducing apparatus of this embodiment, the analog information recorded in the analog memory 2 is compressed and stored in the digital memory as digital information, and the digital information compressed and recorded in the digital memory 3 is converted into an analog signal. The data can be transferred so as to be converted into information and recorded in the analog memory 2. For this storage and transfer, an analog output switching circuit 20 is provided. The analog output switching circuit 20 performs switching such that analog information is input as an analog signal from the analog memory 2 or the output selection circuit 9 and the analog information is output as an analog signal to the output selection circuit 9 or the input selection circuit 8, respectively. Switching of the input selection circuit 8, the analog output switching circuit 20, and the output selection circuit 9 is performed according to control signals Select1, Select2, and Select3 from the switching control circuit 11 of the control circuit 1, respectively.

The analog information input to the input selection circuit 8 is converted into digital information by an analog / digital (hereinafter, abbreviated as “A / D”) conversion circuit 21, and is sent to a compression circuit 23 via a voice analysis circuit 22. The compression processing is performed according to a predetermined method. The digital compression signal from the compression circuit 23 is written from the control circuit 1 to the digital memory 3. The address of the digital memory 3 into which the compressed digital information is written is specified by an address signal Address generated from the data address control circuit 12 in the control circuit 1. The operations of the A / D conversion circuit 21 and the voice analysis circuit 22 are controlled by the control signal En generated by the control circuit 1.
controlled by able1. The operations of the compression circuit 24 and the digital memory 3 are controlled by a control signal Enable2 generated from the control circuit 1. Analog memory 2
The addressing of the analog data to be recorded and reproduced, which is controlled by the Enable3 signal generated from the control circuit 1, is performed according to the address signal Address generated from the data / address control circuit 12.

When reproducing the digital information compressed and recorded in the digital memory 3, the compressed digital information is read by the control circuit 1 and is expanded by the decompression circuit 24.
Given to. The expansion circuit 24 expands the compressed digital information by performing expansion processing in the direction opposite to the compression processing in the compression circuit 23, and converts the digital information into a digital / analog (hereinafter abbreviated as “D / A”) conversion circuit. At 25, the information is converted into analog information and supplied to the output selection circuit 9. The expansion circuit 24 and the D / A conversion circuit 25 are controlled by a control signal Enable4 generated from the control circuit 1. Control signal
The power consumption is reduced when the circuits controlled by Enables 1 to 4 enter a sleep state.

In the present embodiment, when recording is to be started using the analog memory 2 in response to designation of the start of recording of a music signal from the key input device 7, the ID determination circuit 13 in the control circuit 1 is used.
Determines whether the music recorded in the analog memory 2 is already compressed and stored in the digital memory. If it is compressed and stored in the digital memory 3,
The switching control circuit 11 in the control circuit 1 controls the digital memory 3, the compression circuit 23, the audio analysis circuit 22, the A / D conversion circuit 21, the decompression circuit 24 and the D / A conversion circuit 25 by using control signals Enable1, Enable2, Enable4. Is controlled so as to be in a resting state by using. Also, using the control signal Select1,
The input selection circuit 8 switches so as to select an external analog signal. By such a switching, an external analog signal is supplied from the input selection circuit 8 to the analog memory 2.
It is recorded directly and recorded.

If it is determined by the above-described ID determination circuit 13 that the music recorded in the analog memory 2 has not been compressed and recorded in the digital memory 3, this is notified to the user using the display device 10. It is also possible to notify and select whether to compress and save. Also, since the sampling rates of the information recorded in the analog memory 2 and the digital memory 3 should be the same, the past recording recorded in the analog memory 2 is read out first, and the internal analog output Switching is performed so as to select the analog signal from the switching circuit 20, the A / D conversion circuit 21, the voice analysis circuit 22, and the compression circuit 23 are operated to store the digital information in the digital memory 3. Analog memory 2 recorded
A new external analog signal can be recorded at the address. Such recording at the same time as storage is impossible with a recording medium such as a tape or a disk, and is a process that can be realized only when a solid-state memory is used. In this manner, recording of an analog signal in the default analog memory 2 is performed, for example, for one music signal.

Next, as a second embodiment of the present invention, an operation in the case where reproduction is performed using the battery 4 as a power supply will be described. In the present embodiment, when the music information is specified to be reproduced during the operation by the battery 4, the reproduction of the music recorded in the analog memory 2 is selected by default. When the user designates the start of reproduction via the key input device 7, the ID determination circuit 13 in the control circuit 1 determines that the number of the music to be reproduced is the music recorded in the analog memory 2. It is determined whether or not. At this time, naturally, the A / D conversion circuit 21,
Circuit parts of the compression system such as the voice analysis circuit 22 and the compression circuit 23 are controlled so as to be in a halt state.

When the ID determination circuit 13 determines that the music recorded in the analog memory 2 is to be reproduced, the switching control circuit 11 in the control circuit 1 further controls the digital memory 3 and the decompression circuit 24. And the decompression circuit portion of the D / A conversion circuit 25 is controlled to be in a halt state. A data / address control circuit 12 in the control circuit 1 generates an address signal Address and sequentially reads out analog information recorded in the analog memory 2 to reproduce a tune.

If it is determined by the ID determination circuit 13 that the music recorded in the analog memory 2 is different from the music specified by the user for reproduction, each circuit part which has been put into the inactive state by the switching control circuit 11 is deleted. It is also possible to control to read and play the tune designated to be reproduced from the digital memory 3 by operating the digital memory 3.

Since the sampling rate should be the same, the previous recording recorded in the analog memory 2 is read out first, and the output selection circuit 9 outputs the analog output switching circuit 20.
After selecting an analog signal from the analog memory 3 via the
It is also possible to read out and expand the compressed digital information from, and transfer it to the reproduced address of the analog memory 2 for recording. Such processing is impossible with a recording medium such as a tape or a disk, and can be realized only with a recording / reproducing apparatus using a solid-state memory.

FIG. 2 shows that the ID judging circuit 13 of FIG. 1 judges whether the music recorded in the analog memory 2 and the music compressed and recorded in the digital memory 3 are the same. 3 shows the concept of an ID management table. The song, that is, ID, which is identification information for identifying the identity of music information as source data, is stored in the digital memory 3 when a song recorded in the analog memory 2 is compressed and recorded in the digital memory 3. It is set in a part of the area, and the ID table 31 for digital memory is stored in the ID management table 30.
An analog memory ID table 32 is provided, and the same ID is recorded. Assuming that digital information for n pieces of music can be recorded in the digital memory 3, a part of them, for example, two pieces of music, is recorded in the analog memory 2.

If the recording / reproducing apparatus has a clock function, a time stamp can be generally used as an ID. Also, a serial number or the like can be used as the ID. Since the head portion of a song recorded in the analog memory 2 also has a characteristic for each source data, frame data for the first few frames of the compressed digital information recorded in the digital memory 3 may be used as the ID. It is valid. Note that a frame is a unit of audio compression information, and a general compression method often has a fixed length of several bytes to several hundreds of bytes. For example, JP-A-6-7647
No. 5 discloses a technique for performing processing of a silent frame to effectively use a memory.

FIG. 3 shows a frame 41, up to frame numbers 1, 2,...
, 4n, the first frame 41 is a silent frame and the second frame 42
An example is shown in which several frames from the start of a sound frame to the start of a valid sound frame are used as IDs. Since there is a strong possibility that there is no sound at the beginning of the music, if a few frames until an effective sound frame starts are set as IDs, the IDs can be used as highly reliable IDs. For example, the first silent frame 41 and the second and third sound frames 4
It is sufficient that three frames 2, 43 are used as IDs.

Next, as a third embodiment of the present invention, while a past recording recorded in the analog memory 2 is read out first, compressed, recorded and stored in the digital memory, the stored analog memory 2 is stored. The operation of recording a new external analog signal at the address of will be described. First, the control signal Enable1 from the switching control circuit 11 of the control circuit 1
Thereby, the A / D conversion circuit 21, the voice analysis circuit 22, and the compression circuit 23 are operated. The control signal Select 2 for selecting the analog output switching circuit 20 is set so that the analog signal reproduced from the analog memory 2 is supplied to the A / D conversion circuit 21 via the input selection circuit 8. Further, the input selection circuit 8 is set so that an external analog signal is directly input to the analog memory 2 by the control signal Select1 from the switching control circuit 11. With this setting, if the sampling rate read from the analog memory 2 is set to be the same as or faster than the analog signal supplied from the outside, the past recording recorded in the analog memory 2 can be performed. First, a new external analog signal is recorded at the processed address of the analog memory 2 while the A / D conversion circuit 21, the voice analysis circuit 22, and the compression circuit 23 are operated and recorded in the digital memory 3. be able to. Such a process is difficult to realize on a recording medium that requires a seek time, such as a tape or a disk. Also, a process of reading a previous recording recorded in the analog memory 2 first and compressing and recording the same in the digital memory 3 without simultaneously proceeding with recording on the analog memory 2 and compression recording on the digital memory 3. Of course, it is also possible to perform only.

Next, as a fourth embodiment of the present invention, while reproducing a past recording recorded in the analog memory 2,
An operation of operating the decompression circuit 24 and the D / A conversion circuit 25 to read out digital information recorded by being compressed in the digital memory 3 and recording it as new analog information at an address of the reproduced analog memory 2 will be described. First, the switching control circuit 11 in the control circuit 1
Is set to be supplied to the analog output switching circuit 20 side by the control signal Select3. In addition, the control signal Select2 is set so that the output from the analog output switching circuit 20 is supplied to the input selection circuit 8 side. The output of the input selection circuit 8 is set to be input to the analog memory 2, and the output of the analog memory 2 is set to be output to the outside via the output selection circuit 9.
With this setting, if the sampling rate read from the digital memory 3 is set to be the same as the sampling rate of the analog output reproduced from the analog memory 2, the sound, music, etc. recorded in the analog memory 2 can be obtained. While reproducing, a newly expanded analog signal can be recorded at the reproduced address of the analog memory 2.

Even if the reproduction and the recording do not proceed at the same time, only the decompression processing can be performed collectively after the reproduction of one music is completed. A method is also conceivable in which after the reproduction of a tune recorded in the analog memory 2 has been completed halfway, the next tune is read from the digital memory 3 and expanded in a lump.

Further, as a fifth embodiment of the present invention, a case where the compression circuit 23 of FIG. 1 is processed in parallel by a plurality of circuit groups will be described. The parallel operation of the compression circuit 23 is possible regardless of how the information to be compressed is divided. However, in general, in the algorithm of the audio compression processing, the parameters of the audio compressed the previous time or the one before the previous one are inherited as information elements of the audio currently being compressed, so that when divided at an arbitrary position, the compressed information becomes discontinuous there. Problem. The voice analysis circuit 22 detects a portion where the same sound in a certain section continues in advance during voice recording as an information dividing means, and records the address thereof. This continuous portion may be sound or silence.

When the music once recorded in the analog memory 2 is read and compressed, the control circuit 1 determines an optimum division position among a plurality of recorded addresses and a plurality of circuits in the compression circuit 23. Compression processing is performed on groups in parallel.
For example, if there are two circuits capable of parallel processing, an address determined to be closest to the center is set as a division position and divided into two and input to each circuit. If the outputs from the plurality of compression circuits are directly recorded in the digital memory 3 respectively, there is no need to combine them as digital information, and a buffer for this is not required. Thus, the configuration can be simplified and the processing time can be reduced. If a plurality of expansion circuits 24 are provided, high-speed expansion processing can be performed even during reproduction.

When parallel processing is performed in the compression circuit 23, the output compression information is divided into a plurality of pieces.
It needs to be connected by some means. In this embodiment,
Coupling is performed using link information recorded for each frame. As shown in FIG. 4, generally, compression information is recorded in n-byte information units. The link information indicates an address of a frame to be read next, and is a technique that is often applied in managing an information record. That is,
One frame 4m includes a link flag 4ma and n-byte compressed data 4mb. The link flag 4ma includes not only the link address 50 indicating the address of the frame to be read next, but also the total division number 51.
And a division number 52, and further includes a management flag group 53.

FIG. 5 shows the order of frames recorded in the analog memory 2 when two divisions are performed. (A) shows the first half divided part, (b) shows the second half divided part. The analog memory 2 as a whole is in a recording state as shown in FIG.

FIG. 6 shows a sixth embodiment of the present invention.
1 shows a schematic configuration of a recording / reproducing apparatus using a multilevel flash memory 62 instead of the analog memory 2 of FIG. In the present embodiment, portions corresponding to those in the embodiment of FIG. 1 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant description will be omitted. The digital information converted from the analog information by the A / D conversion circuit 21 is recorded in the multi-level flash memory 62 of the present embodiment without performing the compression processing by the compression circuit 23. Also, the recorded digital information is transmitted to the D / A
The data is converted into analog information by the conversion circuit 25 and reproduced. In the present embodiment, the A / D conversion circuit 21 or the D / A
Although it is necessary to operate the conversion circuit 25, it is possible to use the multi-value flash memory 62 to perform recording with a larger capacity than the analog memory 2.

In each of the above-described embodiments, the audio signal is recorded and reproduced, but it is also possible to record and reproduce a video signal such as a still image or a moving image in the same manner.

[0056]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to record and reproduce analog information in an analog memory as it is,
After converting to digital information and subjecting it to decompression and expansion processing, recording and reproduction as digital information in a digital memory can be switched to one or both in accordance with conditions predetermined in relation to convenience and power consumption. Therefore, it is possible to improve convenience according to a use situation and reduce power consumption.

According to the present invention, analog information is recorded / reproduced to / from a multi-valued flash memory. Therefore, a conversion means for converting analog information into multi-valued digital information is required. Therefore, analog information can be recorded and reproduced efficiently using a relatively inexpensive multilevel flash memory.

Further, according to the present invention, since a semiconductor memory is used as a digital memory, it is not necessary to use a recording medium having a mechanically driven portion, and since there is no mechanically driven portion, power consumption can be reduced. it can.

According to the present invention, when an internal battery is used as a power source, analog information is recorded in an analog memory in order to reduce power consumption, and when an external power source is used via a power adapter, a large capacity is used. Digital information is recorded by compressing it into digital memory that can be recorded and played back, and the proper use of digital information according to usage conditions makes use of the advantages of relatively expensive analog memory and relatively inexpensive digital memory, and battery life. Can be extended.

Further, according to the present invention, when the analog information once recorded in the analog memory is converted into digital information, compressed and stored in the digital memory, the compression processing of the digital information is performed by a plurality of compression circuits. Since the compression can be performed in parallel, the time required for compression can be reduced.

Further, according to the present invention, the original analog information of the digital information to be compressed in parallel by the plurality of compression circuits by the information dividing means is divided by the delimiting condition satisfying the predetermined continuity. It is possible to reduce a sense of discomfort at the joint of the information when performing.

According to the present invention, when the recorded contents of the analog memory are stored as digital information, the compression processing is divided by a plurality of compression circuits and then immediately written to the digital memory. It is possible to perform a rapid compression process by simplifying the configuration without requiring a buffer or the like for synthesizing.

According to the present invention, when analog information recorded from an analog memory is read and stored in a digital memory, new analog information can be recorded thereafter, so that an expensive analog memory can be used efficiently. can do.

Further, according to the present invention, digital information written in the digital memory can be read out, decompressed, converted into analog information and transferred to the analog memory for recording. For digital information, it is not necessary to perform decompression processing and conversion to analog information every time reproduction is performed, and power consumption can be reduced.

According to the present invention, when analog information and digital information based on the same source data are recorded in the analog memory and the digital memory, respectively, the analog information is reproduced from the analog memory. It is no longer necessary to read the data and perform expansion processing by the compression / expansion means or to convert it into analog information by the conversion means, thereby reducing power consumption and obtaining the convenience of being able to start reproduction from an arbitrary position. Can be.

According to the present invention, since identification is performed using the head of digital information, it is not necessary to use special identification information, for example, a time stamp, as identification information, and a recording / reproducing apparatus without a time stamp function is required. The present invention can also be applied to In addition, since the identification information can be universally managed between the recording / reproducing apparatuses using the same audio compression method, the reliability can be remarkably improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic electrical configuration of a recording / reproducing apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the concept of an ID management table 30 used by the ID determination circuit 13 of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a concept of using a silent part of audio compression data as an ID managed by the ID management table 30 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a concept of link address management in a case where the compression circuit 23 of FIG. 1 performs a division process using a plurality of circuit groups.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a concept of a recording state of the analog memory 2 when performing a two-divided process using the link address management method of FIG.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a schematic electrical configuration of an embodiment using a multi-level flash memory 62 instead of the analog memory 2 of FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 control circuit 2 analog memory 3 digital memory 4 battery 5 power adapter 6 power detection circuit 7 key input device 8 input selection circuit 9 output selection circuit 10 display device 11 switching control circuit 12 data address control circuit 13 ID determination circuit 20 analog output Switching circuit 21 A / D conversion circuit 22 Audio analysis circuit 23 Compression circuit 24 Decompression circuit 25 D / A conversion circuit 30 ID management table 40 Audio compression data 41 to 4n, 4m Frame 50 Link address 62 Multi-value flash memory

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Kenji Miwa 22-22, Nagaikecho, Abeno-ku, Osaka-shi, Osaka Inside Sharp Corporation (72) Inventor Yukio Kawamoto 22-22, Nagaikecho, Abeno-ku, Osaka-shi, Osaka (72) Inventor Kazuhiro Kishimoto 22-22 Nagaikecho, Abeno-ku, Osaka-shi, Osaka

Claims (12)

[Claims] 1. A recording / reproducing apparatus comprising: an analog memory capable of recording and reproducing analog information; and a digital memory capable of writing and reading digital information, wherein a conversion between the analog information and the digital information is performed. Converting means for compressing the digital information, writing the digital information in the digital memory, reading and expanding the digital information written in the digital memory, and expanding and compressing the digital information; and converting the analog signal according to predetermined conditions regarding convenience and power consumption. And recording / reproducing as analog information using an analog memory, and / or control means for controlling recording / reproducing as digital information using a converting means, a compression / expansion means, and a digital memory. Recording and playback device. 2. The recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a multi-value flash memory is used instead of said analog memory. 3. The recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the digital memory is a semiconductor memory. 4. The control means includes: switch input means for switching between recording and reproducing the analog information as analog information and recording and reproducing the analog information as digital information in accordance with an externally supplied input; When the switching input is not given to
4. A switch discriminating means for discriminating whether to use an internal battery or an external power supplied through a power adapter as a power source, and performing the switching according to the discrimination result. The recording / reproducing device according to any one of the above. 5. The control means reads the analog information recorded in the analog memory, converts the analog information into digital information by the conversion means, compresses the digital information by the compression / decompression means, and writes and stores the digital information in the digital memory. The recording / reproducing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the recording / reproducing apparatus is controlled to perform the control. 6. The recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said compression / expansion means includes a plurality of compression circuits for executing the compression processing of said digital information in parallel. 7. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit includes: an information dividing unit that divides the analog information read from the analog memory in accordance with a delimiting condition that satisfies a predetermined continuity; 7. The recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the information is controlled so as to be compressed in parallel by the plurality of compression circuits. 8. The recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said plurality of compression circuits write digital information subjected to compression processing in parallel to said digital memory at the end of processing. 9. The control unit according to claim 5, wherein the control unit controls to record new analog information in a recording area of the analog memory in which the analog information to be stored is recorded. The recording / reproducing device according to any one of the above. 10. The control means reads the digital information written in the digital memory by the compression / decompression means, performs expansion processing, converts the digital information into analog information by the conversion means, and stores the digital information in the analog memory. The recording / reproducing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein control is performed so as to transfer and record. 11. The control means includes: analog information recorded in the analog memory;
The digital information stored in the digital memory is provided with the same source determining means for determining whether or not the digital information is based on an analog signal representing the same source data. The analog information determined to be the same source data by the same source determining means 11. The recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein reproduction of the digital information is performed by reproducing analog information from the analog memory. 12. The source data is audio information, and the same source determining means includes a predetermined number including a silent portion at a head of analog information recorded in the analog memory and digital information written in the digital memory. The recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the information unit is used as identification information for the determination.